From the podium, Estela Ortega, executive director of El Centro de la Raza, rallies with supporters at a "Yes on City of Seattle Preschool Program Prop 1B" election night event Tuesday, November 4, 2014. The preschool levy will be combined and more than doubled under Mayor Durkan's 2018 Families, Education, Preschool and Promise Levy.

From the podium, Estela Ortega, executive director of El Centro de la Raza, rallies with supporters at a "Yes on City of Seattle Preschool Program Prop 1B" election night event Tuesday, November 4, 2014. The

From the podium, Estela Ortega, executive director of El Centro de la Raza, rallies with supporters at a "Yes on City of Seattle Preschool Program Prop 1B" election night event Tuesday, November 4, 2014. The preschool levy will be combined and more than doubled under Mayor Durkan's 2018 Families, Education, Preschool and Promise Levy.

From the podium, Estela Ortega, executive director of El Centro de la Raza, rallies with supporters at a "Yes on City of Seattle Preschool Program Prop 1B" election night event Tuesday, November 4, 2014. The

The Seattle City Council on Monday approved a $636 million, seven-year property tax levy for the November ballot, a measure which combines, renews and more than doubles the size of two expiring levies that it is replacing.

The 2018 Families, Education, Preschool and Promise levy will cost the median Seattle homeowner $248 each year, up from $136 a year under the two present levies. The city is using $665,000 as the median price of a Seattle home in 2019.

The fear that Seattle voters would turn on the big education levy was a factor in last week's decision to abruptly repeal the $275-per-employee "head tax" that the city had levied on its large employers.

The head tax, intended to house the homeless, fast became a vehicle for voter anger at Seattle City government, its increased spending, lack of apparent results from that spending, rising property taxes, and a taxing City Council.

The $636 million levy would replace the $236 million Families and Education Levy -- which itself was doubled from $131 million the last time it went before voters -- and the $58 million, four-year Seattle Preschool Levy.

It is designed to increase from 1,500 in 2018 to 2,500 by 2025-2026 the enrollment in Seattle's preschool program, to support Mayor Jenny Durkan's Seattle Promise College Tuition Program, and to support students who are homeless, and encourage more diversity among Seattle teachers.

"We can and must act to close the opportunity gap in Seattle, put more young people on a path to good paying jobs, and create a more affordable future for our children," Durkan said in a statement.

The levy was approved by a 9-0 Council vote. When Durkan signs the legislation, it will go on the November ballot.

Durkan appeared of a mind to show mercy on the city's levy-burdened taxpayers when she ran for Mayor last year.

She appeared to promise that levy hikes would be reserved for urgent mental health needs.

The city has dunned its taxpayers. In 2015, for instance, the then-record $360 million Move Seattle transportation levy was followed by the gargantuan $930 million Move Seattle levy. A year later, the multi-billion-dollar Sound Transit 3 tax package was on the ballot.

The city has lately admitted that it cannot meet the goals and lavish promises laid out -- and sold by consultants -- in the Move Seattle measure.

The Families and Education Levy has, however, been a popular measure. It has encouraged and rewarded imaginative programs in city schools. And not a penny of the money is controlled by the Seattle Public Schools bureaucracy at Stanford Center.

The Seattle Promise program, a popular plank of Durkan's 2017 campaign, is designed to offer two years of free community college tuition to graduates of Seattle's public high schools.

The city will show a little bit of mercy under the $636 million education levy. Qualified low-income seniors, the disabled and veterans with a service connected disability will receive an exemption.

The Emerald City's voters are famously generous, but this November's ballot issue faces a headwind of dissatisfaction with Seattle government and city services.

As another plank of her 2017 campaign, Durkan promised better delivery of city services. She needs to deliver, although polls show Her Worship retaining popularity with city residents.

The City Council does not.

Seattle PI.com blogger/columnist Joel Connelly can be reached at joelconnelly@seattlepi.com

Columnist Joel Connelly has written about politics for the P-I since 1973.